Volkert: It comes back to your business model. If the business model requires that you put the entire constellation system in place before you put it on and get the first dollar in revenue, it will be very difficult to follow it. If you have a constellation system where once you launch the first group of six or so satellites you can get your revenue stream started, fill out your constellation and increase your update times, revenue streams will grow naturally.
It is difficult for any start-up company. Part of the problem I have seen repeatedly is that engineers don’t always have the right business partners. … One of the problems is that you can build small, relatively inexpensive satellites all you want, but it still costs you an arm and a leg to launch them. Once we get low-cost launch programs and combine them with small satellites, we will have huge growth in that field. Elon Musk and the Falcon 1 is an example. I hope they are going to be successful in launching this time.

Volkert: I think Elon is looking to bring it down to $10 million. I do not know how he is going to do that, and it is a function of whether or not he’s successful. There are really no economical small satellite launch systems. We are launching several out of Russia. If you had a low-cost U.S. launch system, it would revolutionize our industry. There are a lot of possibilities, but your business model has to make sense.

---